New Poll: 50 Percent of Voters Think Al Franken Should Resign as New Allegations Mount

Fifty percent of voters think Sen. Al Franken should resign from the Senate following allegations of sexual misconduct, according to a Politico/Morning Consult National Tracking Poll released Wednesday.

The poll was conducted after Los Angeles morning news anchor Leeann Tweeden revealed the Minnesota Democrat had kissed and groped her in 2006 without her consent during a USO tour in 2006.

However, the poll was conducted before a second woman, Lindsay Menz, accused Franken of inappropriately grabbing her buttocks at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010 while he was a sitting senator.

The poll found that 46 percent of voters believed Franken should be expelled from the Senate for his behavior. Twenty-five percent of voters said Franken should keep his seat, and 29 percent had no opinion.

DAILY

The Western Journal Daily Email

Breaking news updates and daily headlines from a news source you can trust.

Facebook

Email

Thanks For Subscribing!

Sixty-six percent said the Senate Ethics Committee should investigate Franken’s conduct, while 15 percent did not and 20 percent had no opinion.

The Senate Ethics Committee will be investigating the claims made against Franken, however, it’s unlikely anything will come of it, according to Craig Holman, Government Affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen.

Advertisement – story continues below

“I would not expect any action to come out of the Senate Ethics Committee on any of these charges,” Holman told the Washington Examiner.

“The Senate Ethics Committee is not only very slow, it is dysfunctional and fairly secretive,” he added. “We really don’t know what is going on when it comes to ethics enforcement in the Senate, except for the fact that very little is going on.”

According to Politico, the partisan gap is quite narrow in regards to voters feelings on Franken. Forty-nine percent of Democrats think Franken should relinquish his seat in the Senate. Fifty-six percent of Republicans, and 44 percent of independents believe Franken should resign.

The poll found a much wider partisan gap when it surveyed voters’ opinion on sexual misconduct allegations against Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore.

A total of 57 percent of voters believe the Senate should expel Moore if he wins his election on Dec. 12. The vast majority of Democrats surveyed — 73 percent — think Moore should be expelled from the Senate, compared to 46 percent of Republicans.

Advertisement – story continues below

“Our polling reveals a stark contrast in how Democrats and Republicans view allegations against politicians from their respective political parties,” Morning Consult co-founder Kyle Dropp said.

“For example, while 69 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of Democrats say the sexual assault allegations against Clinton are credible, only 37 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of Democrats say the same about allegations made against Trump,” Dropp said.

Overall, voters feel sexual harassment and misconduct is a significant problem in both Hollywood and Washington D.C. Fifty-nine percent of voters said sexual misconduct is a big problem in the entertainment industry, and 43 percent said the federal government also has a problem with sexual misconduct.